Thread: Hey, I'm new here!

Hello,

Obviously, I'm new here so I thought it would be rude of me to not introduce myself. I have experienced lucid dreams (months apart) and sleep paralysis (years apart) now and again for as long as I can remember, and I often have quite vivid dreams and more often than not have control over my character in the dreams I can remember. I thought lucid dreams was something that everybody experiences now and again so I didn't think too much about it and never practiced to get better at it. Unfortunately my lucids have become more and more rare the older I get, so I thought it might be a good idea to put in some effort to try and have more lucid dreams and get more control over my dreams.

All my lucid dreams so far have been spontanious, meaning that something in the dream makes me realize that it must be a dream. Somtimes I gain conciousness and sometimes I don't when this happens. Sometimes I don't seem to care about the feeling and just brush it off. When I have a nightmare and become lucid, I always try to wake up straight away, and often succeed. I would like to be able to control my nightmares instead of fleeing from them.

I started on a dream journal a while ago and I plan to convert my entries into english and add them here on dreamviews once in a while.

I also try to get into the habit of performing reality checks now and again. I find it hard, though, and only tend to remember to do it while doing something related to dreaming, like reading these forums.

Yesterday I tried WILDing for the first time. The first three attempts or so I got so scared/excited by the sensation that I had to abort. A while later I tried again, and now I somewhat knew what to expect and managed to stay relatively calm. After a while I felt like my whole body was shaking violently, especially my legs and feet, as if I was in an earthquake, and I had crazy REM. Some time after the shaking had stopped, I opened my eyes, but unfortunately I found myself lying in my real bed. I did some reality checks although I was quite sure that I was awake. I had only slight visual and auditory hallucinations so I guess I'm more of a tactile guy.

Oh and btw, I'm a Swedish guy in my early twenties and I work as a computer programmer. In my spare time I like to play computer games or contemplate on philosophical questions. I personally don't find these details very important, but I guess some people find it interesting.

Sorry for the long read. I tried to keep it as compact as possible.

EDIT: Btw, I'm more of a lurker than a poster. I only post if I can add something significant to the conversation. I'm not so much in favor of speculation.